Sing, sing a song

Pal Mary Schmidt tagged me in the "songs that lift your spirits" meme. The goal of meme originator, life coach Hilda Carroll, is a collective playlist.

Mary comments that it is hard to pick just one song because she has different soundtracks for different parts and times of her life.

Yup. How do I pick?

Bob Marley. Aretha. Nina Simone. Eric Clapton. Jimmy Cliff. Warren Zevon. Norah Jones. David Sanborn. Bonnie Raitt. Cream. Blood Sweat & Tears. Chicago. Monk. Billie.  And yes even The Who, Beatles and Stones.

I can get it down to three.

Pretty much everything by Crosby Stills & Nash, but most particularly Southern Cross.

For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield

And for the sheer joy of it, Ella Fitzgerald’s Berlin version of Mack the Knife.

{spoken} thank you. we’d like to do something for you now.
We haven’t heard a girl sing it. and since it’s so popular,
We’d like to try and do it for you.
We hope we remember all the words.{}

Oh, the shark has pearly teeth, dear
And he shows them, pearly white
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight

Oh, the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though, wears macheath dear
So there’s not, not a trace of red

On a sunday, sunday morning
Lies a body, oozin life
Someones sneaking round the corner
Tell me could it be, could it be, could it be
Mack the knife?

Oh, what’s the next chorus?
To this song, now
This is the one, now
I don’t know
But it was a swinging tune
And it’s a hit tune
So we tried to do mack the knife

Ah, louis miller
Oh, something about cash
Yeah, miller, he was spending that trash
And macheath dear, he spends like a sailor
Tell me, tell me, tell me
Could that boy do, something rash

Oh bobby darin, and louis armstrong
They made a record, oh but they did
And now ella, ella, and her fellas
Were making a wreck, what a wreck
Of mack the knife

{louis armstrong imitation}
Oh snookie taudry, bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And do bo bo bah bah bah nop do bo de do {}

So, you’ve heard it
Yes, we’ve swung it
And we tried to
Yes, we sung it

You won’t recognize it
It’s a surprise hit
This tune, called mack the knife

And so we leave you, in berlin town
Yes, we’ve swung old mack
We’ve swung old mack in town
For the darin fans,
And for the louis armstrong fans, too
We told you look out, look out, look out
Old macheaths back in town.

( lyrics found on LyricsFreak)

Before you ask, yes, I am aware that  my three songs are all from the 60s. I like contemporary music and just about every genre, except country music, but the songs I grew up with lift my spirits the most. 

I’m tagging Mom 101, Jeneane Sessum and Kent Newsome. Because I know they’ll tell us about interesting music with great posts.